1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an emergency vehicle control device that automatically stop a vehicle when an emergency situation occurs which makes it difficult for a driver to continue driving while the vehicle is running, and particularly relates to an emergency vehicle control device that performs automatic vehicle stop control by a switch operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
An emergency situation which makes it difficult for a driver to continue driving, for instance, illness of the driver may suddenly occur in the vehicle. To cope with such a situation, devices have been developed that, when it is difficult for the driver to continue driving, stops the vehicle automatically. In such devices, accidental activation of automatic vehicle stop control has to be avoided by appropriately determining that the driver is in a state that makes it difficult to continue driving. For instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-228954 discloses a device that, when an emergency vehicle stop switch is operated, executes automatic vehicle stop control, and that, when an accelerator operation is performed, cancels the execution of the automatic vehicle stop control.
There are various types of switches. Among all, automatic return switches are widely used. In general, an automatic return switch outputs a switching signal from OFF to ON for the first operation, and outputs a switching signal from ON to OFF for the second operation. However, when an automatic return type is used for an emergency vehicle stop switch, the following problem arises. That is, in the case where the driver falls into a state that makes it difficult to continue driving, passengers may panic and may repeatedly press. When ON/OFF signals are outputted as the switch is repeatedly pressed, execution and cancellation of execution of the automatic vehicle stop control may not be performed properly.